Why was Putin ride in Trump’s limousine?

First the red carpet, a handshake and then it went to the armored limousine of the US president: For Wladimir Putin, the summit with Donald Trump in Alaska could not have been better. Instead of peace negotiations, there were publicity and pictures that show: The man who attacked a country for no reason and against whom an international arrest warrant was issued can be seen again in the West. Donald Trump greeted him like a war hero.

After landing and greeting, Trump even invited Putin to climb into his car. The Kremlin chief then simply left his limousine. American media reported, as the two heads of state chatting and laughing on the back seat in Trump’s Cadillac, called “The Beast”.

It is quite possible that the two used the more intimate framework for a four-eye conversation-especially since an officially planned two-person discussion was canceled at short notice. So far there has been no official explanation of the car ride from the White House or from the Kremlin.

Also conceivable that the US President took the chance to specify a little in front of his Russian counterpart. Finally, Protz and Peeping also belong to Trump’s passions and Trump would not be Trump if he did not want to bind his magnificent superiority to the Kremlin chief on his nose.

What the pictures and videos of the two heads of state in the “Beast” definitely show is the advance of trust that Trump Putin granted. Because a ride in the highly secured presidential sedan raises political relationships to a higher, intimate level. In any case, the trip with Putin fits in Trump’s staging on the Military base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska: Applause and handshake on the red carpet, then the march to the armored president limousine.

Incidentally, it is not the first time that a US president lets another head of state in his armored luxury car ride. Donald Trump had already shared his Cadillac’s back seat with other counterparts. Around 2017, when he rolled through Paris with Emmanuel Macron or drove with the then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe through the surrounding area of his golf light in Florida.

And Trump is not an isolated case: Joe Biden once took Mexico’s head of state on his way to a summit in Mexico City. And from Barack Obama there is a photo from 2010 that shows him together with the then Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in the presidential carriage.

The diplomatic protocol has no clear regulation in such cases. Only heads of state with which you are not on a line are reluctant to see in the limousine. This is shown by an episode from 2018: At that time, Trump wanted to invite North Korean rulers Kim Jong-un at a flying visit to Singapore in his car. Trump’s advisor is said to have finally paid the US President from saying the invitation.

If you also tried it in the case of Putin, you obviously not succeed.